A Station Eight Fan Web Site
Ask Greg Archives
Spectacular Spider-Man, The
Archive Index
: « First : « 100 : « 10 : Displaying #219 - #228 of 1206 records. : 10 » : 100 » : Last » :
Posts Per Page: 1 : 10 : 25 : 50 : 100 : All :
Giant Boy writes...
I've been rewatching The Spectacular Spider-Man, mostly the second season so far, and decided to rewatch "Subtext".
I really like Molten Man's character and looked him up. I also by chance happened to come across Blackie Gaxton in Betty Brant's page on the Spider-ManWiki.
It said that her brother was put in a similar situation with Blackie that ended similar to what happened between Spidey, Mark, and Liz in "Subtext".
After thinking about it, I'd have to say it was brilliant that you decided to do that story with Mark and Liz, whether or not Betty's brother would have appeared since Molten Man had his story.
Looking foward to Young Justice Legacy, Rain of Ghosts, and Star Wars Rebels.
Greg responds...
Yeah, we conflated Betty's brother with Liz's half-brother.
And by now, I assume you have YJ Legacy and Rain. What did you think?
Giant Boy writes...
In the non-canonical Spectacular Spider-Man/Gargoyles three act radio play crossover, was Mary Jane Watson starting to fall in love with Peter?
By the way, enjoyed reading the script for the radio play. It was amusing.
PETER: That was almost the Look! :D
Greg responds...
Not particularly.
DanM writes...
Hey Greg... DanM again...
No stories just questions now.
1 - In Rebels is the Producer title of yours a Glorified Title once more or are this the real deal?
2 - In developing characters. Do YOU ever consider how a character name would sound in another lenguage, when you are in the process of naming them? (I ask this because of Count Dooku. Here in Brasil he was renamed Count Dookan, 'cause phonetically speaking it sounds to us as "From a**h*le").
3 - About the toyline. Do the show producers have any say in the development of the toy line? (Like approve or not the design, number of articulations, etc.. That kinda stuff...)
4 - Have you ever considered making a podcast about the show production, while producin it (now, that would be Rebels)?
Thats it for now.. Thanks again for your time
Later
Greg responds...
1. I'm an Executive Producer on Star Wars Rebels. I'm not sure I know what you mean by "once more". I don't think any of my producer titles were "glorified" from my point of view. I did the work; I earned the credit. Sony and Warner Bros may not have needed me to truly produce either SPEC SPIDEY or YJ, but that doesn't mean I didn't produce them.
2. No.
3. No.
4. That's beyond my technical capacity. And I doubt that Lucasfilm would approve anyway.
Stephen Murphy writes...
Hey Greg. First off just want to say I'm a big fan of your work I've loved everything you've done and I thank you for all your hard work. My favourite of your shows is Spectacular Spider-Man because for me anyway this series and Mark Webb's Amazing Spider-Man movies are what truly captured Spider-Man for me which is a teenage boy trying to balance out a duel identity that is Spider-Man to me and like everyone else I was sad it was cancelled but things happen. I'm a big Star Wars fan too so I look forward to your work on Star Wars Rebels next year. I actually watched the interview you did with The Everything Geek podcast and it was very fascinating to listen too. I'm also a good friend of the people who run the podcast so seeing some of my friends interview one of my inspirations as a writer was cool to me. Anyway onto my 3 questions all Spectacular Spider-Man related:
1. What was it like getting the voice cast together and finding the right voices for these characters?
2. Were there any actors you had already considered to voice a new character for Season 3 before the show was cancelled?
3. Were there any actors you wanted for the show but were unable to get so they were replaced by someone else?
Anyway thank you for your time Greg. Can't wait for Rebels and whatever work you do next
~Stephen Murphy
Greg responds...
1. A dream, really. We held a ton of auditions for a huge quantity of characters, but there wasn't any real disagreement. Myself, Vic Cook, Jamie Thomason and executives at Sony, Marvel and Kids WB all loved the cast we chose.
2. We didn't get that far.
3. Well, the obvious was Keith David, who was originally our Big Man but then became unavailable. But we think Kevin Michael Richardson did a great job too.
SBlueMonkey writes...
Hello Mr. Weisman,
You've shared some of the pitches for Gargoyles spin offs such as Dark Ages and 2198 without potentially spoiling anything if they ever get a shot at being made. Would you ever do the same with the bibles for Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice? That would make for fun reading, but if they contain anything you wouldn't want judged out of context it's understandable why not.
Greg responds...
I'm not ruling out the possibility.
Aaron writes...
I've noticed you've refused (repeatedly) to confirm or deny whether Cletus Kasady would have eventually become Carnage in The Spectacular Spider-Man, but can you reveal what he was talking about during his cameo in the group therapy in "Reinforcement"?
Greg responds...
Probably his desire to kill.
cyber-xanatos writes...
I was wondering back then some one asked a question about the spectular universe specifically what heroes were active and you answered that this took place a few months or years before donald blake found mjolnir but you were mum on anyone else i was wondering was the Fantastic Four active
Greg responds...
I don't think I was mum. The Fantastic Four were active, but dealing with threats on a much larger scale. Ant-Man was active but was very much under the radar. The Hulk was jumping around the American Southwest, more legend than anything. Professor X had just opened his school, but only had two students so far, Scott and Hank.
Thor didn't have his hammer back yet. Tony Stark had not yet been injured. Namor was still a bum. Captain America was still frozen. (I felt that Uncle Ben had a big collection of World War II Captain America memorabilia in the attic, which in part inspired Peter to put on a costume in the first place.)
Had we been given our druthers, we definitely had planned to have a Human Torch guest appearance. (Always loved the Johnny/Pete dynamic.) And eventually some of the others. Though, as I stated before, we never planned to make it a Marvel Team-Up show. Maybe one big guest star per season.
NoOneSpecial writes...
1.After the events of Identity Crisis, did the general public become aware that it was venom who was behind the crimes as the black suited spider man?
2.How could Gwen remain so obilvous to the growing hostility between peter and eddie? I mean she saw immediataley that something was wrong with harry, so why couldn't she see what was happening to eddie? How does she feel about eddie's mental breakdown?
3.Is anyone aside from peter and eddie aware of what happened to the symbiote since it disappeared from conners lab?
Greg responds...
1. Basically.
2. She's concerned for Eddie. I think it's fairly clear that she knew something was wrong, but I don't think it ever occurred to her that he was Venom, until maybe after Identity Crisis.
3. It's been a while. I'd have to think about it.
Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...
Now that I've posted all my episode thoughts...(in theory I still plan on doing the same on the comics, but...) I want to say thank you for the series in general. (I'd go into details, but it seems redundant after posting all those responses.) I've thoroughly enjoyed it in all its parts. Well, by the time you read this the video game will be out. [Yep!] I probably will have to sit it out. Pathetic as it is, I have to admit to some motion sickness from a lot of video games. I'm assuming I'll be able to get some pretty detailed descriptions from the good folks here. I hope that there will be other continuations as well. (Also good luck on your new Star Wars series.)
I have to admit to more than a little annoyance that another show I enjoy is canceled, but also some confusion. If I understand correctly one of the major factors, if not the major factor in the cancellation is that the merchandise didn't sell as well as they companies had hoped. Good viewership numbers are almost inconsequential. If this is true, (big if, I admit), I don't understand the business model. Why continue making cartoons targeting the older demographic at all? I know the show aimed for a broad audience, but it aimed for each part directly. A lot of cartoons aim themselves at kids directly, and place bonus references and jokes for the older viewers. I've loved many shows like that. But the complexity of characters and plots in shows like Young Justice is not a bonus for older viewers, it is integral. (IMHO) A relationship like, for example, Guardian and Bumblebee is more relateable to a college or adult viewer than a kid. (I would have gone to Babs and Dick, but that was mainly expanded upon in the comics.) A kid would gravitate to the first season romances, or the M'gan/L'gan/Conner triangle. All the relationships were interesting and important to the show, and none were simple, it's just different parts resonant (from experience or at least plot type familiarity) better to different age sets. (Or for out of YJ examples- In Green Lantern- the complexity of Razor and Ia's relationship- given his past lost love, her resemblance, his survivor guilt and rage issues and her ultimate sacrifice is not something that targets the younger viewers of the show. They'll just accept the two are a couple and enjoy the fight scenes. It was perhaps more integral to the show than any Hal based plot. In Tron the entire looks of the show was aimed older, high teens and 20s would be my guess, and not particularly conducive to action figures to my eye.)
Older fans are less likely to buy toys, (or have toys bought for them), but they also have control over their own finances to buy what is actually advertised during broadcast. Between the 24 hour cable tv cycle and dvrs, grown ups will be watching when kids can't, allowing for targeted ads of the none happy meal/stompies/pillow pet variety. (For the record, my 4.5 year old adores her stompies. ~she's 5 now~) I get that a franchise like DC or Marvel or Star Wars can expect some cross product sales, and even a show not squarely aimed at a small kid can have a cool iconic action figure that sells well. But no one expects Smallville or Arrow to survive on toy and apparel sales, they stays on air based on the number and demographics of viewers, just like Birds of Prey did not last for the same reason. Have cartoons, or at least the beautifully animated ones, become loss leaders for merchandise like comics have become loss leaders for movies? And is that a reasonable burden to place on a show that does not squarely target the audience that will buy those toys? Is a high level video game an attempt to tap into an action figure equivalent of older viewers?
I don't want to turn this into a rant about how annoyed I am that YJ was canceled....er, not renewed. I will admit to being mightily confused why DC Nation isn't aiming to expand into more than an hour of programming. I just assumed it was planned to become a 2 or 3 hour block like the old Disney Afternoon, with perhaps a rotating stable of shows. But I am interested on your more insider insight on what the none creative aims are when a new cartoon is unleashed upon the world nowadays and whether they are reasonable. Thanks,
Greg responds...
I think one thing to keep in mind is ratings these days are NOT what they used to be.
Ducktales was a ratings smash. It made it's money by itself. Any merchandising was gravy.
Our numbers on Gargoyles, back in the day, puts the ratings of many of today's quote-unquote top-rated animated series to shame. (And Gargoyles was a hit, but never a home run, ratings-wise. Just a single or double.)
So with lower numbers overall, that means less income is coming in from advertising. Meanwhile, the costs of production have either held steady or gone up. That's pretty simple math, isn't it?
So to pay for the production of these shows, you're counting on other streams of revenue to balance the books - and for an action show that mostly means TOYS.
So if the toys don't sell - for whatever reason - how do you pay for the series?
Whether that's reasonable or not is somewhat immaterial. It's just the cold, hard truth of the situation.
So EVERY show I've ever been asked to produce has a core target that it's trying to reach, and usually that's BOYS 6-11, because the belief is (whether you agree or not) that Boys 6-11 drive toy sales for action figures. Doesn't mean the networks object to other demographics (girls or younger kids or older kids, tweens, teens and adults) ALSO watching. But you still have to hit the target.
Picture it like a bullseye. Concentric circles. You MUST hit the center. But hopefully in hitting that sweet spot, you are also reaching the other demos. Back on Gargoyles, I was farely successful at hitting that target audience AND reaching other demos too. And that has always been my goal on these shows. We didn't quite manage it on W.I.T.C.H. We did on Spectacular Spider-Man. And our success was mixed on Young Justice. Ratings were decent overall (by today's standards though not by any absolute standard at all), but our ratings in our target demo were inconsistent at best. (We could go on forever about why, but it doesn't change the FACT of the numbers.)
Throw in Mattel's decision to abandon their YJ line (again, without going into the reasons behind it), and frankly it's no surprise we weren't renewed.
Because how could Warner Bros afford to make it?
After experimenting for two seasons and 46 episodes of YJ, why wouldn't they take the chance on something new that might bring in more money? Or at least pay its own way?
Frankly, we need a new business model. But the studios haven't landed on one that works yet. So they still chase hits.
Avi writes...
1. You write strong female characters with skill(Demona, Gwen, MJ, Artemis, ETC). Since women can be portrayed weak sometimes, how do you do it?
2. Other than Stan Lee's run with Romita and Ditko, what era of Spider-man comics did you enjoyed reading the most?
3. What is your opinion on Spider-man: Kraven's Last Hunt, by JM Dematteis? Most people generally like it but others think it may have been too dark for Spider-man (Dematteis was actually going to have the story be a Batman and Joker story at first)
Thanks for the amazing shows! Spectacular Spider-man (I was looking forward to Season 3-5 and DTV's) was absolutely amazing along with Young Justice (I was so looking forward to the next season). I am only up to Avalon part 1, but Gargoyles has been tremendously fun to watch so far. I don't love Star Wars, but Rebels seems great so far and I can't wait. You are an inspiration to me. Thank you.
Greg responds...
1. I like to think I've portrayed some female characters as strong and others as weak. Some who stay strong, some who weaken. Some who stay weak, some who gain in strength. As to the 'how'… I don't have a magic formula. I'm sure it helps that I've always known, loved, admired and respected strong women all my life, starting with my mom. But really, I don't know any other way to do it.
2. There was some fun stuff for me in the 80s.
3. I haven't read it.
: « First : « 100 : « 10 : Displaying #219 - #228 of 1206 records. : 10 » : 100 » : Last » :